New Copyeditor is a Lizard Person
by Silverwing013
Summary: Sawamura noticed something off about the new copyeditor at his workplace and calls for Kuwabara.


Kuwabara walked into the office with a vague feeling that the new copyeditor was, in fact, a lizard person. He'd swear up and down that he glanced over quick enough to spot the tail before the copyeditor disappeared around a corner. Maybe not shout it out to the world, he thought to himself. Sawamura stepped up and nudged him.

"What do you think," his friend asked of him. Sawamura kept his voice on the low side, fingering through the papers of the file he held. "Your face has tickle feeling written all over it. Well, no. Not quite tickle feelings… So what did you see?"

"Er…possibly something?" Kuwabara shoved his hands into his pockets. "Where's this fancy desk and cubicle you got now man?"

"Right, right. Over this way Kuwabara." Sawamura led him across the office, the pair of them easily ignoring the looks aimed their way as they went. Too many years of side eye looks and shuffling away and looking to them for trouble lended to a lack of real concern for Kuwabara in a mere visit to a friend's workplace. All right. It wasn't exactly as though he had a visitor's pass. And most visitors came during lunch hours with deliveries of food. "By the way, how are the courses you're taking right now? Still working your way across all the different sciences?"

"Eh, yeah, kind of. I've got a knack for most, but I kept going back to biology type ones. I…I'm thinking I might do that. Got in enough fights to see the use and the idea of studying more into stuff for helping diagnosis things or to research into or discover helpful stuff to people that are hurting, well… There's a kind of appeal, ya know?"

Sawamura grinned, going around another corner and tossing his file onto the desk of the corner cubicle. "This doesn't have anything to do with Yukina, does it?"

Kuwabara went more than a bit red in the face. "Shut up." He leaned over, trying to make himself a little less conspicuous, or at least avoid standing out so much with height above the cubicles. "So, yeah, I caught sight of a lizard tail. Weird stuff around your new copyeditor isn't exactly what you thought."

His old time friend blinked and straightened his back, trying to get a good look at the copyeditor over the cubicle without standing back up from his chair. "If you say so, I don't see it, but I trust you about this kind of stuff Kuwabara." Sawamura slumped down. For a long moment, he stared at the file on his desk. Then he rubbed at the top of his head, mussing up his neatly combed hair. He finally raised his gaze back up to Kuwabara. With some disbelief, he asked to check. Or to possibly voice his disbelief. "He's a lizard man? What is this? New York City?"

Kuwabara's mouth twitched up on one side. Amused, he chuckled. "I've run across a demon who wound up having some real tough spider webs. Bit of a bad guy though. Maybe in Japan, The Lizard is the good guy." Sawamura snorted, chuckling with Kuwabara. "I'll check and see if he's one of the new home stays, get back to you about him."

"I'll just pretend I think he's still Curt Conners, nothing more to him," Sawamura replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "I mostly just called you about him to get you out here to see you since it's been a while. I honestly really wasn't all that worried. Maybe I grew up too much around you and your family, but I think I could have handled a ghost."

Kuwabara snorted. "How's that?"

"Eh." Sawamura flashed a brilliant flash of white teeth up him. "More of I know exactly who to call."

The pair snickered. An older worker in the cubicle beside Sawamura's corner cubicle stuck their head up over the divide. "Hush up. And get your friend out of here. This is a workplace. Not some hip and in club." Eyebrows knitting up over his pinched eyes, the older worker looked back and forth between them, taking in Kuwabara's rougher face with the bleached pompadour and to Sawamura's handsome features with hair styled just so. Confusion and uncertainty flickered across the other worker's face. "Or…an underground fighting match?"

Kuwabara and Sawamura stared at the other worker, not answering, just waiting to hear if there was more. The worker sank down behind the divide without another word. They looked back to each other and shrugged.

"I should probably get going before I sully your reputation earned through those grown in very striking looks." Kuwabara's mouth quirked up, jibing his friend. It'd been a joke since the tail end of their junior high days among their gang. People, especially girls, had taken to viewing Sawamura much differently after his growth spurt and somehow thought that made Sawamura not count as one of the gang or that he was 'better' than them.

"You know perfectly well I don't give a hoot about what they think Kuwabara," Sawamura threw back easily. "Stick around for a bit."

"Got some girl pestering you?" Kuwabara winked.

Sawamura shot up a dry look, pinning Kuwabara with it. "You've been spending far too much time around Urameshi."

"Eh, his sense of humor isn't always awful. Mostly. But I know I'm right." Kuwabara was positive this was why. While the girls had become more interested in Sawamura for his handsome face and tussled hair, not minding the bleached bit as they tittered about his more model features, Sawamura had grown more and more irritated with girls and less and less interested. Sanctuary was found with the rest of their gang as it usually offset the interest for looks only on his person. "Is this the real reason you had me visit you here?"

Flipping at his file, Sawamura rolled his eyes and huffed. "I can handle some girl. It's been a year since I've needed your atrocious mug."

"Putting the fear into shallow and judgmental morons for years," Kuwabara said, quoting his sister when she noticed what the gang did for Sawamura. "Bet I can find you a Spider-Man mug to ward off the Lizard," Kuwabara tossed back with a grin. Sawamura sputtered and cracked up laughing.

A low and exasperated groan came from around the corner cubicle. Then the new copyeditor popped his head to peer in at Sawamura sitting at his desk and Kuwabara bending close behind him. Startled at the lack of warning before the copyeditor let them know he was there, Kuwabara blinked, wide eyed and staring. At least it was a sign leaning to good. His senses typically were more in tune with warning him of incoming malevolent intent.

"Hey," he greeted slowly at the very much it was a lizard person for Sawamura's workplace's new copyeditor. The demon laying under the guise of human appearance for those not with the sixth sense like him was definitely a lizard. Green, larger than expected head, tail, pushing to beat Kuwabara in height if not the muscle mass.

"Ah. You weren't waiting long I hope?" Sawamura's question trembled in the undercurrent, not so much in his voice, but in how his fingers tapped at his knee. The copyeditor sighed and shook his head. Fingers tapping a few more times, Sawamura turned away to dig for a different file in his top desk drawer. "Give me a moment. I've got those papers for you here."

Kuwabara and the copyeditor met each other's eyes behind Sawamura's back. Then the file was thrust out and the copyeditor took it. Before he moved to the next cubicle to collect more, the copyeditor took out his wallet and flashed a card in Kuwabara's direction, holding it steady. Leaning to look at it directly, Kuwabara took in the official home stay card that'd been signed off, and nodded with a flash of a thumbs up and smile. The card quickly disappeared back into the copyeditor's pocket.

Then, the lizard demon moved on. But both Kuwabara and Sawamura could hear the copyeditor's huff of annoyance as he went. "Should have never visited New York City. Steve fucking Ditko."


End file.
